Type of issue: salary & deduction
At the Migrant Awareness Week organised by students in the law school of National University of Singapore, 3 - 7 March 2014, a whole host of activities were on the calendar. For the forum of 3 March, TWC2 vice-president Alex Au (pictured above with HOME's Celine Dermine on his left) gave a presentation. Below is
By Lucas Ho Selvam (not his real name) rests his head, heavy with worry, in his hand. "I very worry," he says. "So many nights I cannot sleep." He knows about a recent the report in the Straits Times: "22 Indian nationals charged for false declaration of salaries," ran the headline in the Straits Times
Our recent article about workers from Woolim Plant Engineering & Construction Company explained how the Bangladeshi employees were underpaid for over a year before deciding to raise the issue, and how Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2) assisted them in calculating their salaries and lodging a complaint with the Ministry of Manpower (MOM). This is far
In a noteworthy decision, the High Court ruled that the Ministry of Manpower's Assistant Commissioner for Labour misapprehended the law, applying it wrongly. The latter (also known informally as the Labour Court) had ruled in favour of the employer VGP Corp Ltd. But the High Court, in a written decision released on 31 December 2013,
Most times, when TWC2 volunteers interview workers, the conversation tends to focus on the immediate problem he or she faces, be it an injury needing proper medical attention, unpaid salaries, or a job scam. Suman Barman has an injury too, to his right thumb, but he was also a good case study of someone who
Continued from Woolim, part 1: How low can a salary get? Early January 2014, Iqbal comes to the office with a group of his co-workers telling us that three of the fifteen men have accepted a settlement offer from the employer Woolim, wherein each of them would receive $2,000. This, says Iqbal, is a far
Sunday Times, 9 February 2014 carried a feature article by Radha Basu, leading with a figure that Bangladeshi worker Hussain Iqbal had given TWC2: $1.50. That was the hourly rate that his employer paid him for nearly a year, despite a document issued by the Ministry of Manpower confirming that his employer Woolim would pay
Junnuri Subrahmanyam's flight was booked for the evening. He wanted a day off on his last day in Singapore so he could go downtown to buy gifts for this family. He had been working four years with Sin Hong Thai Engineering and was looking forward to going home. But instead of being on a plane
By Keith W He waves to me while I am standing in the ATM line. He looks familiar but I can't place him. Guessing that I am having some difficulty remembering him, he approaches me to re-introduce himself. "You not remember me? My name Esan*," he says. "Last time I have injury problem, and I
Media Statement For immediate release 14 January 2014 On 13 January 2014, the Ministry of Manpower issued a media statement "Tripartite Guidelines on Issuance of Itemised Payslips". Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2) have been highlighting for years the need to make itemised payslips mandatory, as an essential step in combating salary abuses, a common problem
